He nodded and then pulled her close. Their hips effortlessly moved together. There was no thought to the motion. It was just a seamless perfection.
But it didn’t explain why he was down here or why he was dancing with her or why he was talking to her at all.
“What are you doing down here, Damon?”
“It’s my break.”
“I went up there and made a fool of myself. Now, you’re here, dancing with me?”
“You’re a good dancer.”
Trihn stilled and stared up at him. “What do you want?”
“Well, I wanted to dance with you,” he said, “but I also wanted to talk to you.”
“I think we’ve talked enough.”
“Later. After I get off work, wait for me.”
His hands landed on her hips again. It was so simple with him. Despite the embarrassment she still felt in his presence, dancing made total sense and made all the other emotions vanish. It was her favorite thing about dancing. Damon just made it that much easier because he was so good.
“Why should I?” she asked.
“Just wait for me, okay?”
He sealed their hips together, and they rolled in heart-stopping circles that pushed her body so tightly against his that she barely had room to breathe. She could feel the hard contours of his washboard abs under the dark T-shirt he wore. Her dress was so short that when he pressed a knee between her legs as they danced, her ass nearly hung out the back. If they wanted to, they could probably have sex right there on the dance floor. Their movements were so in tune together that it was basically foreplay. And when he finally pulled away at the end of his break, Trihn was breathing heavily, and his pupils were dilated.
“You’ll wait?” he asked.
“Against my better judgment,” she whispered hoarsely.
“Good.”
Then, he disappeared into the crowd to return to the DJ booth, leaving her more confused than ever.
“You sure you don’t want to ride home with us?” Eric asked.
He was holding up an extremely drunk Bryna, who was vacillating between giggles and rants.
When Bryna got drunk, she only had two modes—crazy and psychotic. It all depended on how happy Bryna was. Luckily, psychotic hadn’t been out in a while, but Trihn had seen her blow her fuse a few too many times not to always be a little wary of a drunk Bryna.
“Yeah. I’ll catch a ride with Maya if I have to,” Trihn reassured him.
When her friends finally cleared out of the bar, Trihn sat down on a barstool that was normally covered with people, and with jitters in her stomach, she looked up at Maya.
“I’m surprised you made it this long,” Maya said, wiping down the counter.
“I can’t believe I’m sitting here, waiting for a guy who rejected me when I offered him sex.”
Maya guffawed and then tossed her towel down. “You could have had sex with any guy in the place tonight, but you want him now because he said no.”
“I do not!”
“Yeah, you do.”
“Ugh! That’s not true. That makes it sound like I have issues.”
Maya leveled her with an accusatory stare.
“I don’t have issues. You all cooked up this idea together, so I’d forget about Neal.”
“And it’s working! Plus, you were into Damon last night,” Maya said with a wink. “But come on, tell me, you aren’t the least bit intrigued as to why he wants to talk to you after turning you down?”
Trihn rolled her eyes. “Of course I’m curious.”
“Well, good because here he comes. Fill me in on the details when you find out.” She fluttered her fingers at Trihn and then walked away.
Trihn sure hoped Maya wasn’t leaving her behind because, if things didn’t work out, she was going to need someone to take her home.
“You waited,” Damon said.
Trihn hopped off the barstool and teetered in her high heels. “You said you wanted to talk.”
“Yeah. I wanted to apologize for earlier,” he said, tipping his hat off his head.
His dark hair was mussed in all the right ways, and it made her want to run her fingers through it.
“I wasn’t expecting you or…your proposition, and I think I came off as a jerk,” he said.
Trihn shrugged and looked at the ground. “Not any more than how awful I came off.”
“If you just went through a breakup, your head probably isn’t even on straight. So, how about we just…I don’t know…start over?” he suggested hopefully.
“Yeah, sure,” she agreed easily. The last thing she wanted was to be reminded of what had happened in the DJ booth.
“Hey. I’m Damon Stone. Pleasure to make your acquaintance,” he said formally, sticking his hand out.
She took it in hers and shook firmly. “Trihnity Hamilton, but my friends call me Trihn.”
“Well, Trihn, can I offer you a lift home?”
She nodded with a smile. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
They walked out to the back parking lot and stopped in front of a silver Civic.
“I know it’s not much, but she’s gotten me through a lot of hard times,” he told her.
“It’s cute.”
“Oh no, the dreaded cute,” he said as he opened the passenger door for her.
She laughed and took a seat. He shut the door and ran around to the driver’s side. He got into the car, revved the engine, and he immediately fiddled with the heat.